Workforce Demand and Career Opportunities in University and Research Libraries NAS Symposium on Digital Curation Anne R. Kenney July 19, 2012.
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Workforce Demand and Career Opportunities
in University and Research Libraries
N A S S y m p o s i u m o n D i g i t a l C u r a t i o n
Anne R. Kenney
July 19, 2012
WHAT I’LL COVER
Work in the research library community
Requisite skill sets
Analysis of job postings
Recommendations moving forward
DIGITAL CURATION: A GROWING FOCUS AREA
Digital Hegemony
• Digital Production and Dissemination• Digitization• Special Collections
Big Science, Digital Humanities
Open Access
Federal Mandates, NSF Data Requirements
Repository Development
Digital Preservation
ARL ACTIVITIES
2006, E-Science Task Force established
2009/10, ARL E-Science survey and report; Special Collections in the Digital Age Working Group
2010, ARL Guide for Research Libraries: The NSF Data Sharing Policy
2011, Digital Curation for Preservation Report
2011/12, E-Science Institute, ARL/DLF/DuraSpace E-Science Institute
2012, Fall Forum on 21st Century Workforce; potential partnership with SAA
From E-Science to E-Research
7 NEW ROLES FOR LIBRARIANS*
1. Acquisitions and Rights Advisors
2. Instructional Partners in Learning Spaces
3. Observers/anthropologists of Information Users and Producers
4. Systems Builders
5. Content Producers and Disseminators
6. Organizational Designers
7. Collaborative Network Creators and Participants
Walters and Skinner, New Roles for New Times: Digital Curation for Preservation, ARL, Mar 2001
DIGITAL CURATORS IN THE SCIENCES*
Creation of research data and information objects
Curation and management of research data and information objects
Collaboration in virtual communities
Walters and Skinner, New Roles for New Times: Digital Curation for Preservation, ARL, Mar 2001
DIGITAL CURATORS IN THE HUMANITIES*
Creation of humanities scholarship
Curation of data and information objects
Addressing the white space: space and services for information processing, federation of resources, digitization, and preservation
Walters and Skinner, New Roles for New Times: Digital Curation for Preservation, ARL, Mar 2001
From Youngseek Kim, et al, “Education for eScience Professionals”, IJDC 6:1 (2011) http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/168
RECOMMENDED COURSES FOR ESCIENCE PROFESSIONALS*
Digital data curation Database design and management Project management Essentials of scientific research Overview of cyberinfrastructure Geographically distributed collaboration Web content management and web interaction design Scripting or practical introductory programming Data mining Information system management and server administration
From Youngseek Kim, et al, “Education for eScience Professionals”, IJDC 6:1 (2011) http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/168
RATINGS OF IMPORTANCE AND FREQUENCY OF ESCIENCE INTERNSHIP TASKS
MOST SIGNIFICANT SKILLS GAPS IN SUPPORTING EVOLVING RESEARCHERS’ INFORMATION NEEDS
1. Ability to advise on preserving research outputs
2. Knowledge to advise on data management and curation, including ingest, discovery, access, dissemination, preservation, and portability
3. Knowledge to support researchers in complying with the various mandates of funders, including open access requirements
4. Knowledge to advise on potential data manipulation tools used in the discipline/subject
© Information School / University of Sheffield 2012Mary Auckland, “Re-skilling for Research,” RLUK, January 2012
MOST SIGNIFICANT SKILLS GAPS (CONTINUED)
5. Knowledge to advise on data mining
6. Knowledge to advocate, and advise on, the use of metadata
7. Ability to advise on the preservation of project records, e.g. correspondence
8. Knowledge of sources of research funding to assist researchers to identify potential funders
9. Skills to develop metadata schema, and advise on discipline/subject standards and practices, for individual research projects
Mary Auckland, “Re-skilling for Research,” RLUK, January 2012
REQUISITE EXPERTISE FOR DIGITAL HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Requisite Expertise
Domain/subject expertise
Analytical expertise
Data expertise
Project management expertise
Williford and Henry, “One Culture: Computationally Intensive Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences,” CLIR, 2012
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RESEARCH LIBRARIES
Recruit/develop staff expertise in data management, data analysis, management of collaborative projects
Contribute to the peer review of new forms of online scholarship
Offer consultation services
Encourage cross-disciplinary engagement through public programs and workshops
Partner with other institutions to promote preservation and access for publications and data
Williford and Henry, “One Culture: Computationally Intensive Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences,” CLIR, 2012
RESEARCH LIBRARY STAFFING NEEDS
ARL Jobs Announcements database
ARL/UF Position description database (under construction)
Tito Sierra study on ARL Library hiring in 2011
Further analysis of job titles database
JOBS DATABASE ANALYSIS
505 job postings
68 positions (13.5%) have “data,” “E-science,” or “digital” in the position title
• 53 have “digital” in the position title• 17 have “metadata” in their position title• 9 have “data” in their position title• 6 have “digital humanities” in their position title• 4 E-Science Librarian positions• 4 Digital Archivist positions• 2 Social Sciences Data Librarians• 1 each for “data curation” and “digital curation”
JOBS DATABASE ANALYSIS
New Positions New Management Positions
Digital Collections Strategist
Digital User Experience Specialist
Digital Data Outreach Librarian
Data Management Planning Consultant
Data Visualization Coordinator
E-Learning Librarian
Scientific Data Curator
Associate Dean for Digital Scholarship and Technology Services
Associate Vice President Digital Programs and Services
Associate Director for Digital Initiatives
Associate University Librarian for Digital Scholarship Services
QUALIFICATIONS FOR NEW POSITIONS Of the 68 positions, 38 of 68 positions (55%) mention
MLS/MLIS degree in the qualifications
Only 3 of 505 positions list “digital curation” in the qualifications
Typical range of skill expectations for digital humanities and e-science librarians
• Management skills, subject knowledge, communication skills, technical skills, metadata skills
• E-science: technical knowledge on use and archiving of digital data, repositories, e-science issues, ontologies
• Digital humanities: research methods and process, trends, scholarly communication, digital scholarship, digitization, digital media, data mining/modeling, visualization
E-SCIENCE LIBRARIAN DATA RESPONSIBILITIES Work with university’s primary research community and other
librarians to develop and support services for documenting and distributing research data.
Conduct research on methodologies and tools for data information systems.
Develop services to enhance access to data.
Develop and maintain awareness of data centered initiatives in the life sciences.
Build partnership relationships with relevant campus, state, and national data organizations.
Maintain awareness of tools and algorithms for computationally centered, data-driven science (data mining, visualization, text mining, etc.)
DIGITAL HUMANITIES LIBRARIAN RESPONSIBILITIES Create, deliver, curate and preserve digital assets and tools.
Assist with planning, implementation and production of digital collections and scholarly initiatives, especially project design, digitization workflows, and content and delivery systems.
Develop and deliver repository and scholarly communication services.
Articulate relationship between new technologies and humanities scholarship to the community of humanists.
Advise faculty on creation of digital objects and provide technical support for use of analytical tools.
Serve as agent between content providers and library’s repository.
CONCLUSION
Growth area in research libraries, with sciences more clearly defined but increasing interest in digital humanities
MLS/MLIS not the only path
Qualifications for new positions not well codified
Digital curation not common in qualifications nomenclature
Redeployment/retraining of existing staff critical
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